Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says 20-year-old world champion Kimi Antonelli is a new breed of driver, and he took aim at the grid's self-centred complainers.
Kimi Antonelli is Formula 1 world champion, and Toto Wolff is using the moment to make a point about where the sport is heading. The Mercedes team principal called his young star a new kind of racing driver and a symbol of F1's future, and used him as a pointed contrast to what he called the grid's entitled moaners.
Antonelli clinched the title in Mexico City on Sunday. At 20 years old, in only his second season in F1, he becomes the youngest champion the sport has ever seen. It is a remarkable rise for the Italian, and one that has made his campaign one of the most talked-about in recent memory.
It wasn't only the results. Wolff pointed to Antonelli's attitude, enthusiasm and sense of fair play as what set him apart in a season that revealed so much about the teenager-turned-champion. In Wolff's eyes, that mix makes Antonelli a gamechanger in more ways than one, and he hit out at drivers he sees as selfish and quick to complain.
There is one more detail for fans to note. Antonelli says he will keep the No. 12 on his car next season, so the new champion will not swap it for the traditional number 1. Expect plenty of eyes on him, and on how the rest of the grid responds to Wolff's challenge.
